Last year,
Mattel and the Four Horsemen brought us
Teela in the Masters of the Universe Classics series, and collectors
were pleased. They've followed her up with her evil counterpart,
Evil-Lyn. Lyn is the right hand witch of Skeletor, using magic for evil
purposes. But you know, when you name your daughter 'evil-lyn', you're
just asking for trouble.

Like the old school action figure, this
Lyn is a rehash of the Teela figure. The body is identical, but she has
a new head sculpt, new accessories, and a different paint scheme.

Lyn was the April Matty
Collector
figure, selling for the usual twenty bucks plus shipping. She sold out
in under 10 minutes once again, prompting collectors to curse Mattel on
every forum.

Odds are pretty good they'll end up re-issuing her,
since that seems to be their policy at this point, but if you can't
wait, there's always her personal auction site - evil-bay.

Packaging - ***1/2
It's the usual, which will make regular
MOC collectors of the series happy. MOC folks tend to like the
packaging to remain consistent.

It's
fine by me as well, since it
looks great. I end up tearing the figures out and tossing the package,
but I still appreciate the attractiveness and retro style.

Sculpting - ****
Since Teela picked up a full four stars and Evil-Lyn is 90% Teela,
you'd expect a pretty similar score in this category. It's just the new
head sculpt that
could have gone south...and there's no bird migration here.

Lyn
is another babe, yet she has a bad dude's attitude. It's all in the
eyebrows don't you know - remember when Elaine drew black eyebrows on
Jerry's uncle, and the doctor felt he had a bad attitude? Yea, it's
those downward pointing arched eyebrows that give her the evil edge.

The
small details, like the skull on her helmet or the fur on her costume,
are
clean and sharply defined, particularly for this scale. Like Teela,
she's just about the same height as He-man, with a more feminine
physique of course.

She stands great on her own, as
you'd expect, and her hands are sculpted to work extremely well with
the weapons.

Paint - ***
Like her
cousin, her paint job isn't quite up to the level of
quality
you'd expect. The blue on her costume is fairly sloppy, and some of
the silver details are also lacking.

Fortunately
the work on the face is great, with some nice green eye shadow, sharp
eyebrows, and clean lips. In some photos, the yellow of her torso and
the yellow of her arms and head might look slightly different, but this
is not noticeable in person.

A big positive here is the
translucent blue ball on the top of her magic staff. They could have
simply painted it blue, but going this route instead gives her a bit
more pizazz.

Articulation - ***1/2
She has identical articulation to Teela, from her ball jointed neck to
her rocker feet. All the joints work cleanly, and the pegs are sturdy
and strong. There's no loose joints, and she's able to take very
natural poses.

Speaking of the rocker feet, I
had to use a little force to break them free, but nothing that was
dangerous.

The
ball jointed head allows for some very good tilt poses, even with the
helmet and high collar. You can add a little personality and attitude
to just about any pose.

Accessories - ***1/2
Once again, we get some nice new additions that are very character
specific.

There's a deadly looking
ceremonial knife, and she can hold it in either hand.

There's
also her magic staff, with the aforementioned crystal ball. There is a
short and long shaft for this overall staff, and they pop apart right
below the multiple blue rings. This switch works pretty easily.

In the re-use department, she
has the same bird we've seen multiple
times now. However, to distinguish this fowl from Teela's, there's an
attachment that fits on the birds back and head, as well as a large
perch. The wings are articulated, and the feet fit tightly on the top
bar of the perch.

Fun Factor - ****
I love this line - these are some great toys first, collectibles
second. They are certainly sturdy enough to stand up to play, and are
really the best quality action figures that Mattel is currently
producing. Too bad most kids will never know they even exist.

Value - **
Teela did better here, but that's due to the extra head. You can never
go wrong with two heads.

It doesn't help that she's
mostly re-use, although her staff, knife, head, bird attachment and
bird stand are all new.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing!

Overall - ***1/2
I remain a huge fan of this series, even though Mattel seems determined
to make that such a painful love affair. I obtained my Evil-Lyn because
I have a subscription, and had I not had said sub, I would have missed
out. By the time I completed my online order (for the MM Bats, MOTUC
weapons pack, and 12" Venkman), the Teela's were already sold out.

I'm
betting they re-release her though, hopefully before the year is out.
With a couple cool SDCC exclusives and a number of solid releases in
the coming months, this line looks like it will be high in running for
best in 2010.